The Washington Post reported that those
mounds of unprocessed paperwork continue to grow.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here
legally are waiting for FBI background checks that must
be obtained before they can become naturalized. Since
2005, the paper recently showed, the "backlog of
legal U.S. immigrants whose applications for
naturalization and other benefits are stuck on hold
awaiting FBI name checks has doubled to 329,160."[
FBI
Name Check Cited In Naturalization,
By Spencer S. Hsu and N.C. Aizenman, June 17, 2007]

After an embarrassing citizenship screw-up that I
reported on in
November 2002
involving a
known Hezbollah terrorist
who received naturalization approval,
immigration officials resubmitted 2.7 million names of
applicants to the FBI for additional scrutiny. The
Post reports that "[m]ore than five years later,
the FBI is only now emerging from that huge load, with
about 5,800 names left to be rechecked."

But the pile-up persists: According to homeland
security officials who spoke with the Post, about 90
percent of name checks emerge with no matches within
three months, after an automated search of databases.
But the rest can take months or years. There are only 30
analysts and assistants to coordinate with 56 field
offices and retrieve files stored in 265 locations
nationwide. The FBI is now falling further behind on the
new caseload of some 1.5 million fresh names submitted
by immigration officials every year.

"No one is happy with the status quo,"
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Deputy Director Jonathan
"Jock" Scharfen told the paper. "We share the public's
unhappiness with this, and we're committed to improving
the process."

Hey, how about we fix that process before adding
millions more "guest worker" applications to the
bureaucratic mess?

How about we clear the obstructions to the
"path to citizenship" for those who followed the
rules and came here the right way before we start paving
the "path to citizenship" for those who did it
the wrong way?

When the
shamnesty
proponents start
blubbering
about
compassion and fairness,
ask them where their compassion is for the hundreds of
thousands of legal immigrant applicants who are getting
screwed—and who have paid far more in legal fees and
processing fees than the measly,
cosmetic
"fine" the
shamnesty plan proposes for illegal aliens.